Farm work continues despite the heat. We're trying to prioritize getting our plants what they need (primarily water!), while also making sure the farmers get what they need too (also primarily water!). On our farm, it's a tough thing to do to make sure everything gets enough water. First off, our soil is very sandy, so water applications need to be pretty frequent because water either percolates down below the root zone or evaporates out of the soil at a fairly quick rate. Another complication is simply the amount of water that we're able to put out. Our well can handle typical watering of our 4 acre area, but during these extremely hot days, we've upped our watering cycles to be twice a day to give plants more of a reprieve from the heat. Twice a day watering means that we're pretty much constantly watering something. Combine that with water needs for washing produce, clogged filters, malfunctioning timers, etc., and it can add up to a stressful couple of weeks! But we're doing what we can (and eating plenty of popsicles ourselves!) to make it through the heat wave. Needless to say, some rain and cooler temps will be most welcome!
Lots more summer crops are coming online now, we're harvesting Walla Walla sweet onions, and just the first bits of bell, poblano, and jalapeno peppers, we're looking at beginning to pick beans next week, and we're eyeballing our melon block to make sure we don't miss the first ones. Last year at this time, we were just about to start harvesting melons, but we appear to be a couple of weeks behind due to the cool Spring and cold-stressed plants, so you'll have to be patient for melons.
Don't forget to head out to your pick up spot this week to grab your produce box. Remember, that if you see something available at the market that was not available in Harvie - it's because we can't predict bumper weeks that we sometimes have for certain crops and we're pretty careful to be conservative in our estimating so we aren't overpromising what we can't deliver on. BUT, being the VIPs that you are, when you grab your box, if you'd like something from the market side, just ask Rudy and he'll help you out with a side sale.
Looking forward to seeing you at pick up!
Cheers, Bonnie & Rudy
Pic above: Sam and Amber braving the heat to harvest so many cucumbers this week!
